Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-05-04
Address of Rev. DR.. Talmage before the
Bible Society Of Virginia.

Address OF Rev. DR.. TaImage before the
Bible Society Of Virginia.
Tho 74th anniversary Of the Bible Society
of Virginia was celebrated last Thursday
night at the end Presbyterian Church in
Richmond. Never before had that build
ing been so crowded. 1t is estimated that
$500 or more people were present, and two
or three thousand were turned away, un-
able to get within the doors.
The address was delivered by Rev. DIR.
Talmage, of Brooklyn, N. Y. On being in
trodueed by Rev. DR.. Minnigerode, he spoke
as follows
Mr.. President, and other Officers of the
| Virginia Bible Society, and all of its Mem
bers and Friends,-I feel a great pleasure
| in standing in this cOnsecrated place and in
addressing this vast assembly, and con-
graduate the society upon the work it has
been doing.
1t is through such efforts as yours and
kindred institutions that this whole city is
to be redeemed. England for manufacture,
Germany for scholarship, France for man
ners, Italy for pictures, and the United
States for God.
Old books 60 out of date. When they
were written they discussed questions which
were being discussed; they struck at wrongs
which had long ago ceased, or advocated
institutions which excite not our interest.
Were they books of history, the facts have
been gathered from the imperfect mass,
better classified, and more lucidly present
ed. Were they books of poetry they were
interlocked with wild mythologies, which
have gone up from the face of the earth like
mists at sunrise. Were they books of
morals, civilization will not sit at the feet
of barbaaism, neither do we want Sappho,
Pythagoras, and Tully to teach US morals.
What do the masses of people care now for
the pathos of SimOnides, or the sarcasm of
Menander, or the gracefulRess Of Philemon,
OR the wit of Aristophanes? Even the old
books we have left, with few exceptions,
have but very little effect upon our times
Books are human; they have time to be
born, they are fondled, they grow in
strength they have middle-life of useful
ness; then comes old age, they totter, and
they die. Many of the national libraries are
merely the cemeteries of dead books. Some
of them lived fagitious lives and died deaths
Of ignominy. Some were virtuous and &C.
compllshed glorious mission. Some went
into the ashes through inquistorial fires.-
Some found their funeral pile in sacked and
plundered cities. Some were neglected and
died as foundlings at the door of science.
Some expired in the authors study, others
i'll the publishers hands. Ever and anon
there comes into your possession an old
book, its author forgotten and its usefulness
done, and. with leathern lips it seems to
say: 81 wish l were dead.' Monuments
have been raised over poets and philanthro.
pists. Would that some tall shaft might be
erected in honor of the worlds buried books
The worlds authors would make pilgrimage
thereto and poetry and literature and science
and religion would consecrate it with theil
tears.
THE BOOK OF BOOKS.
Not SO with one old Book. 1t started in
the worlds infancy. 1t grew under theec-
racy and monarchy. 1t withsteed storms
of fire. 1t grew under prophets mantle
and under the fsherman's coat Of the apos-
ties. In Rome, and Ephesus, and Jeru-
salem, and Patmos. Tyranny issued edicts
against it, and infidelity put out the tongue,
and Mohammedanism from its mosques
hurled its anathemas, but the old Bible
lived 1t crossed the British channel, and
was greeted by Wickliffs and James I. II
crossed the Atlantic and struck Plymouth
Rock, until, like that Of Horeb, it gushed
with blessedness. Churches and asylums
have gathered all along its way, ringing
their bells, and stretching out their hands
of blessing; and every Sabbath there ale
sixty thousand heralds of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand, free, old
English Bible. But it will not have accom-
plished its mission until it has climbed the
icy mountains of Greenland, until it has gone
over the granite cliffs of China, until it has
thrown it's glow amid the Australian mines,
until it has scattered its gems among the
diamond districts of Brazil, and all thrones
shall be gathered into one throne, and al
crowns by the fires of revolution shall be
melted into one crown, and this Book shall
at the very gate of heaven have waved in the
reasoned empires-not until then will this
glorious Bible have accomplished it's mis-
sion.
| AN EXPERIENCE ON THE CARS.
wasn't surprised when some years ago
on my way to New Orleans 1 saw a gentle
man take small copy of the Bible from hi
pocket, read it, close it, kiss it, and put i,
back into his pocket. While sometimes in
courts of law men irreverently kiss the
| Book, / am sure there are hundreds of peo
pie here who in memory of what the Book
has been to them in the past, and in ex
pectatien of all it shall be to them in the
future, could press it to their lips with a kiss
of undying love.
| THE BEST PART OF HIS LEGACY.
When my parents died the best part o.
the legacy received was the family Bible.
That is the most beautiful book ever own
ed. With that they consccrated their union
On their marriage day. That was the Book
that consoled them when their children died
Here and there the pages are soiled, and
a nd hnr 10 fl1ax Il 49,
old Book, how leafed you, seated on my
mothers lap looking at the pictures, while
she studied the promises. May all joy fly
my heart and sight go out into darkness,
and all sweet sounds become to nae q dis.
cord and nay name be accursed, if ever
forget to honor and revere and love nv
mothers Bible.
| EXPRESSIONS OF ADMIRATION.
There are three or four ex pressions of adj
miration ] wish to make in regard to that
Book. My first admiration is for the estab-
lished divinity of its teachings and sayings.
There is not so much evidence that Wal.
ter Scott wrote ''The Lady of the Lake,:
not SO much evidence that Shakespeare wrote
Hamlet; not SO much evidence that John
Milton wrote paradise Lost"-as there is
evidence that the Lord God Almighty, by
the hands of the prophets, evangelists. and
apostles, wrote this Book. Suppose book
now to be written which came in conflict
with great many things, and was written
by bad men or impestors, how long would
such book stand? 1t would be secuted
by everybody. And I say if that Bible had
been an imposi tion-ifit had not been writ
ten by the men who said they wrote tiff
it had been a mere collection of falsehoods.
do you not suppose that it would have been
Immediately rejected by the peopleP II
Job, and Isaiah, and jeremiah, and Paul,
and Peter, and John were imposters, they
would have been secuted by generations
and nations. If that Book has come down